Why Southland? We saw an opportunity to offer a unique coffee shop experience. Having lived in cities with bigger populations and vibrant hospitality scenes, we wanted to bring a sense of that to Invercargill in the form of a smaller specialty cafe.

Why now? After years of gaining experience and dreaming of owning his own cafe, the timing was right for Dion to open his own cafe with the support of his partner Sylvie. With two years’ experience of renovating our Invercargill villa and 12 years in the coffee industry, Dion had developed the skills needed to fit out the space and bring his vision to life. “With my art and design background, we were able to collaborate on the design of the space, branding and social media presence,” he said.